The United
States is no more
than a distant memory. Drought, famine and war
have put an end to
the once great country. And now the people of
Panem are divided into
12 districts. Each year, two teens are chosen
from each district
to play the Hunger Games. This is televised and
everyone is required
to watch. This year, 16 year old Katniss is one of the
representatives
from her district to play. To compete. To
try to survive.

Booktalk #2

This
captivating story by the
best selling author, Suzanne Collins, begins in the
District 12 of Panem.
Once a year, the Capitol of Panem takes one girl and
one boy ages 12-18
from each of 12 districts under its rule and forces
them to kill each other
in a game known as the hunger games. When Katniss
Everdeen's sister is
chosen, Kaniss volunteers in her place. She and Peeta,
the male tribute,
form a plan to get more sponsors for themselves, which
involves a false
romance between the two. When real and false emotions
collide, trouble
brews between the two, because only one can make it
out alive. (Joanne,
janne76@yahoo.com, k-12 student)

Booktalk #3

North America
is long gone.
Now known as Panem, the continent consists of 12
districts ruled by a capital
somewhere in the western mountains. Life in the
districts is pretty rudimentary
and neighbors try to help each other out. However,
once a year there is
a lottery, with a chance for a district to receive
extra benefits from
the capital. It is billed and televised as an
exciting contest of
strength and skill. In truth it is a dark and
frightening contest.
Each year, every family in each district must enter
the names of their
children between the ages of 10 and maybe 16. If it
has been a tough year
for a family, they can earn extra money or goods by
putting their child's
name in more than once, thus increasing their chance
of being picked. It
is rumored that wealthy families buy their way out of
the lottery. They
never seem to be the ones whose names are drawn.
When 16-year-old
Katniss's little sister's name is drawn to represent
their district, Katniss
quickly goes forward to take her place. She at least
might have a chance;
she is strong, and a skilled hunter. Her sister would
not last a day. For
this is a contest that ends when only one of the12 is
left alive.
Each contestant is immediately flown to the capital
where a crew of fashion
designers and groomers make them into stars for the
televised promos, Katniss
and another contestant, a boy she knows, are played
for public viewing
as star-crossed lovers. How these two cope with the
demands of the game
becomes the web of the story which moves above the
realm of brutality and
into the role of trust and friendship in the face of
survival.
(New Hampshire Isinglass nominee, 2010)

Booktalk #4

This story is
quick-paced science
fiction, set in the not too distant future. America is
now called Pamen
and is divided into twelve districts. The rich,
privileged people in the
Capitol keep the people in the outlying districts in
line through a reality
TV program called The Games. Every year each district
is required to send
one boy and one girl, between the ages of 12 – 18, to
participate in The
Games. These games are a fight-to-the-death version of
the TV show Survivor,
complete with alliances and a little romance thrown
in. There’s also the
glitzy aspect of Dancing with the Stars as the 24
contestants all get makeovers
complete with flashy outfits so they’re more
photogenic. This book is very
exciting, but it also makes you stop and think about
what happens when
a culture values entertainment more than
humaneness. (Pennsylvania
Young
Reader's Choice Awards Program, 2009-2010)

Booktalk #5

Everyone has
at one time or
another witnessed the unbelievable antics of reality
TV contestants. Maybe
you have seen an episode of “Survivor” with broken
alliances and the million
dollar rewards or one of the many other shows that
demonstrate humanity
at its lowest. Well, Hunger Games is reality TV to the
death. Katniss,
the 16 year-old protagonist in the novel Hunger Games,
battles other teenagers
from various districts in the former United States and
it is all broadcast
live on national TV. You want to know the rewards?
Very similar to contemporary
reality TV, you receive money, uncountable luxuries,
and you are elevated
to celebrity status. Oh and did I mention, if you
survive…they might just
allow you to live. (Rhode
Island
Teen Book Award nominee, 2010)

Booktalk #6

In the far off
future, the
United States is divided into districts and ruled by a
dictatorship that
keeps everyone poor and powerless. Katniss is good at
supporting her family
by hunting and scavenging illegally, but she knows she
is not good enough
for the annual “Hunger Games,” a real-time gladiator
competition between
young people selected from each district. Think
reality TV except the it's
to the death - and only one person will win. So
Katniss knows she probably
won't live through it when she volunteers to take her
younger sister's
place in the Hunger Games. Then Katniss finds out that
her fiercest competitor
will be Peeta, a boy she has a history with. Would he
really kill her?
Could she really kill him?Reviewed by
Jenna Obee for
Colorado
Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award, 2010

Booktalk #6

In a
futuristic America, a
boy and a girl from each of twelve provinces are
chosen lottery style each
year to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised
reality show where
only one will emerge alive to earn wealth and extra
food for their province.
When 17-year-old Katniss Everdeen?s little sister is
selected, Katniss
volunteers to go in her place. Will she survive?
(Florida
Teen
Reads nominee, 2010)

Booktalk #7

Maintaining
control is never
easy, but the government of Panem has discovered a way
of subduing dissidents.
Each year, two people from each of the twelve
districts are chosen to participate
in The Hunger Games – a fight to the death for all but
one contestant.
This year, Katniss steps up to take her younger
sister’s place. Once the
selection is made, Katniss and Peeta (the male
participant from District
12) are caught in a whirlwind of preparation. There
are lessons in defense,
survival, and television appeal. The game requires
each participant to
outlast, outwit and out-maneuver the other contestants
– while the entire
country watches on their television screens each day.
Brutal tasks, unbearable
situations, and manipulated settings test each
contestant to his or her
breaking point. The only way out? Personal death or
the murder of the rest
of the group. What possible plan can Katniss and Peeta
develop that guarantees
their survival and their safe return home? Read The
Hunger Games to see
what happens to this pair of warriors.Prepared by:
Beth Pace, Spartanburg
School District One for South
Carolina
Young Adult Book Award Nominees, 2010-2011

Booktalk #8

In the
post-apocalyptic world
of Panem, television dominates everything. The
12 districts each
must provide “tributes” for the entertainment of the
residents. To
be chosen as a “tribute” means a trip to the Capital
city, a more prosperous
life for your family, and the chance to star in the
greatest reality show
in the universe! But there’s a catch – tributes
must fight each other
and only one can survive!

When her
younger sister is
chosen as a tribute, Katness Everdeen volunteers to
take her place.
She finds herself in a literal fight for her life and
in the odd position
of also fighting her emotions as she struggles to
survive and not lose
her humanity.

This is a real
page-turner.
The characters are very believable and the reader gets
sucked into a world
that is both exciting and deadly. There are lots
of twists and turns
and, yes, violence and death. Who will live to
continue the story?

[At the start
of your booktalks
leave two pieces of paper folded in half on the seats
of some of the chairs:
in the center of each have a large red "X".]

Has anyone got
a lottery slip
on their chair? [Invite the two up] Congratuations!
You've won the hunger
games lottery for your district. You get to go to the
Capitol and play
in the Hunger Games arena! It's going to be on T.V.
It's more popular than
American Idol and Survivor combined: everyone in the
world watches! [Ask
teens in turn] Do you know how to fight with a knife?
A gun? Do you know
how to set traps? Handle explosives? How fast can you
run? Swim? Climb?
[Wait for answers] That's too bad. The winners from
the rich districts
have been training all their lives. They're
Olympic-caliber athletes who
know how to shoot and fight. I don't suppose
either of you has much
change of beating them.

In the Hunger
Games arena there
is only one rule: kill or be killed. The last teenager
left alive wins
the game.

In Suzanne
Collin's book The
Hunger Games it's time for the lottery again. When
Kitness' baby sister
wins, she decides to take her place; to die for her.
Kitness comes from
the poorest district of all: she doesn't stand a
chance. Or does
she? In the 12th district, she has to hunt for food
for her family; to
set traps; to fight wild animals to survive. And the
boy chosen from her
district is tough and strong, and her friend. Maybe
she has a chance after
all.

The United
States is a thing
of the past and is replaced by Panem. Panem is divided
into twelve districts
and each year one boy and one girl from each district
are selected by the
Capitol to fight to the death. Literally. In the
competition known as the
Hunger Games the contestants must kill each other and
only one person will
make it out alive. When Katniss’s sister is selected
Katniss refuses to
let her go and takes her place. But what Katniss
doesn't expect is to become
a contender in the games. With the help of fellow
District 12 tribute Peeta
Katniss becomes the contestant to watch out for. When
Katniss and Peeta
team up they fight for each other's lives as well as
their own, but know
that eventually there will be a time where they will
have to fight each
other to the death if they want to survive. Read
Suzanne Collins’s, The
Hunger Games to find out what happens in this
thrilling fantasy novel.
Who will survive when there can only be one winner?
(Shannon Redini, sl-redini@wiu.edu.
college student)

Booktalk
#11

And that's
when I hear them
call her name: Primrose Everdeen. But it can't be! My
sister is only twelve
years old; she can't possibly have been chosen for the
games -- a fight
to the death, all for the capital’s entertainment.
There’s no way Prim
will survive against the twenty-three other
contestants. “I’ll volunteer”
it slips past my lips before I have a chance to think
of the horrors that
await me. I’m Katniss Everdeen, and ready or not I
must survive the Hunger
Games. But the worst is yet to come. Find out what's
in store for Katniss
in this science fiction novel: The Hunger Games
written by Suzanna Collins.(Alexandria
Hamm, aj-hamm@wiu.edu,
college student)

Booktalk
#12

Booktalk Panem
is now on the
ruins of where North American use to be and is divided
into twelve districts.
Each year one boy and one girl are chosen in the
reaping. My name is Katniss
Everdeen and fear is what I felt when I heard my
twelve year old sister’s
name called. Without thinking I took her place as
tribute. At that moment
I volunteered to face 26 other teenagers in a fight to
the death, controlled
by the Capitol, and for all of Panem to see.
Before released into
the arena, we all participate in a busy schedule of
preparation to outlast
and outsmart the other contestants and in hopes to get
sponsors. Once in
the arena, there is only two ways out; to survive or
to die. We need all
the help we can get in these Hunger Games. Read the
modern fantasy book
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins to find out what
Katniss and her fellow
district tribute Peeta have in mind for survival and
whether or not they
make it out alive. Remember, only one can win.
(Cassie Jones,
cl-jones7@wiu.edu, college student)

Booktalk
#13

District 12 is
not an ideal
place to live for anyone sake. The place once known as
North America was
dived into 12 districts that are surrounding the
capital. The capital is
cruel and wants to show each of the districts how
powerful they are by
forcing them to send one boy and one girl into a
battle of the death called
the annual Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is presented
on live televivion
and shows the gruesome death of many tributes. Only
two are allowed to
survive and the win fame and food for their entire
town. Food is the most
important thing when it comes to living in these sorts
of districts. Katniss
Everdeen only sixteen when she volunteers as tribute
so her younger sister
didn’t have to go in. Katniss has experienced many
encounters with death
but this will be like nothing she was ever experienced
before. She has
to make a lot of difficult choices when it come to
survival and helping
loved ones. Will she make it out alive? Read this
extraordinary modern
fantasy novel my Suzanne Collins to find out. (Amber
DiCosola, AM-Dicosola@wiu.edu,
college student)

Booktalk
#14

Katniss Everdeen , the girl on fire. Suzanne Collins the one who made the amazing Hunger Games brings Katniss Everdeen a young and determined girl to take a chance that affected everyone one around her . She volunteered as tribute for the annual Hunger Games . The only games between death and life. To save the one she cared about she risks her life to protect the ones she loved. If you're interested in action , adventure , and breath taking moments, Suzanne Collins' the Hunger Games is the book for you. Find out what will happen to Katniss Everdeen . Will she survive or will she die¦ (Tia, tpatters7075@hwdsb.on.ca, K-12 student)